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Dr. Oz, Kelly Osbourne get personal in support of 'Stand Up to Cancer' event [pictures] [videos]

September 11, 2010 | 10:49
am

When Sharon Osbourne was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, the news rocked her family. Everything had seemed fine -- Ozzy, his wife and their children had been busy filming one of the first reality shows centered around a wacky family structure. And Sharon had been feeling a bit tired and looked more pale than usual, but she never imagined those symptoms could translate to colon cancer.

"It changed everything," Kelly Osbourne, Sharon's 25-year-old daughter, said Friday on the red carpet, where she was one of many celebrities who gathered to support the second annual "Stand Up to Cancer" special. "... It made us love each other so much more because we're all we have. And if we would have lost my mom, I feel like I wouldn't be here talking to you right now."

Visibly emotional, Kelly told us she's only been hit by the gravity of her mom's cancer -- which Sharon has now recovered from -- as she's gotten older.

"It was something that over the last couple of years I've realized how much it actually affected me, because at the time, I just went into like, kind of survival mode and being there for my mum," she said. "I wasn't really thinking about myself. And it's now like when I start talking about it I'm like, 'Boohoo!' And I get really sad and I start crying."

It seemed that everyone from the pool of music, film and television stars gathered on the Sony lot in Culver City had been affected by cancer in one way or another. And that's exactly why the cause matters, said Sherry Lansing, the former head of Paramount Pictures who helped found SU2C two years ago.

"I think cancer touches everyone -- one of two men, one out of three women," said Lansing, adding that the charity's first telethon in 2008 raised more than $100 million. "If you're in a room and you say, 'Raise your hand if you've been touched by cancer,' every hand goes up. The entertainment industry is no different than any other industry."

And no one -- even the healthiest among us -- is safe from the risk of cancer. Case in point? Dr. Mehmet Oz, who recently revealed that on his 50th birthday, a routine colonoscopy showed he had a pre-cancerous polyp.

"I was stunned because I had done everything right, I had no risk factors -- I was checking the box off," said Dr. Oz. "This was the furthest thing from possible realm of reality was that I would have a polyp. But as I thought about it, I said, 'You know what? I'm pretty typical.' Most people who have polyps don't have anything that's big or risky in their lives."

While waiting for the results of his pathology over a long weekend, Dr. Oz called his closest friends, including Oprah Winfrey.

"She was pretty cool and said, 'Maybe I should get this done again,'" he recalled. "Because like most people who are rational, you say, 'If you've got a procedure that will tell you for sure what's happening in your body, why wouldn't you want to do it?'"